5 minute read
Latest filtration technology developments for pre-smolt salmon farming
Çağdaş Güven Işık, MAT Filtration Technologies
RAS in 2021
Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) technological advances for either fresh or seawater will secure the sustainable intensive aquaculture process of the 21st century. Environmentally cautious, innovative RAS installations are the future of a healthy and high nutritional value protein production food, supporting consumers’ requirements by providing sustainable solutions for food safety and food security for the human population in any part of the planet.
A RAS should be designed and installed based on farmers’ biological production process requests, taking into consideration many aspects, more importantly, the animals’ welfare and succeeding a stable production via simple operational procedures. Fully integrated plug-and-play and tested RAS filtration technology is the key to any sustainable aquaculture production.
Nowadays, advanced RAS in land-based farms support the mechanical, biological, chemical and disinfection filtration processes with low energy consumption and ease of operation. The importance of RAS is that it can secure the below important aspects to stable and secure farming: • Optimized TAN removal rate. • Excess protein removal by centrifugal fractionation supported by an automatic protein foam leveling. • Biological support by trickle filtering and bioreactors. • Disinfection solutions by ozone infusion and ultraviolet radiation. • Automation systems allowing real-time water quality monitoring and remote operations to all aspects of the RAS. • Resistant and robust fabrication materials allowing a long life cycle.
Freshwater species land-based aquaculture
We are now in the epicenter of RAS technology for freshwater species equipment design making it possible to achieve sustainable inland fish farming. Our equipment design logic principle is based on compact, lowest possible footprint needed per filtration capacity while keeping initial investment cost at the lowest level. We aim in supporting fish farms that need to control incoming water, recirculation/close loop circuit and the discharged water. Our biologists and RAS engineers started working on fish farm filtration equipment about a decade ago. Since then, many technological improvements, as well as large-scale
Figure 1. Freshwater protein skimmer.
Figure 2. Average particle removal (%) with freshwater protein skimmer.
fish farming knowledge has led the RAS industry, to seek sustainable solutions that would secure stable and safe industrial farming.
Recently, we established a new company MAT-KULING in Norway to support Scandinavian fish farming. R&D has been our main focus, working closely with affiliate fish farms and educational institutions around the world. Our philosophy is to share our RAS equipment technology with established fish farm designers and consultants so that modern fish farms can achieve sustainable operations and produce healthy fish at market price.
The need for freshwater protein skimmers
Freshwater fish farmers, especially salmon farmers, requested MAT Filtration Technologies to develop a freshwater protein skimmer able to perform in fresh and brackish water conditions and be able to be installed specifically in salmon pre-smolt stages tanks.
The salmon’s pre-smolt life cycle is the stage when farms need better water parameters to achieve optimal fish growth. The concern is that these pre-smolt tanks run on freshwater and traditional saltwater protein skimmers cannot achieve significant foam fractionation.
The MAT RAS design and engineering department, spent over 18 months testing different venturi injectors on skimmer bodies while injecting water through newly developed venturi pumps. This adjustment assisted our engineers to obtain the needed pressure and achieve high levels of air infusion into the water cyclone under a specific bubble size within the skimmer body. After many trials and FEA studies, our freshwater protein skimming is now achieving equal, if not better to saltwater, viscous application results. The foam is a thick sludge, leaving the close loop circuit water free of particles and nutrients.
The protein skimmer is an add-on to the existing filtration setup loop. By adding a protein skimmer to the hatchery filtration RAS, the farm aims for enhancement in water quality, resulting in significant improvement in biomass capacity per tank.
The Freshwater Protein Skimmer operates by producing thick sludge of fine air/ozone bubbles of which surface area attracts protein-amino acid molecules and other organic and inorganic compounds. The skimming process is achieved by expelling out this bubble-organic sludge through a foam discharge chimney, located at the top of the device. The key to achieving optimum performance is to ensure stable production of fine air and ozone bubbles, that are sustained within the cyclone, until the discharging point at the top of the chimney.
The freshwater protein skimmers operate using purpose-designed venturis in conjunction with booster pumps, achieving high-pressure conditions within the protein skimmer body. The principle is rather simple but the engineering behind achieving optimum results needed many trials in various bioloads and water
viscosities. Basically, we optimized the polarity of the organic compounds in freshwater environment, achieving significant levels of protein reduction from the nutrient-rich water column. We also observed that the performance of the equipment is even better on higher organic loaded systems. Our site tests showed a decrease in total suspended solids, ammonia, nitrite values and achieved an increase of dissolved oxygen and ORP values.
Results tested by an independent 3rd party
In 2020, the Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Norway’s leading non-profit institute for fundamental and applied research on marine and freshwater applications, performed an independent, field trial on MAT Freshwater Protein Skimmers.
The Freshwater Protein skimmers were found to significantly improve the water parameters in presmolt stage salmon farming. Specifically, these devices remove up to 70% of particles at the outlet vs the inlet of the equipment (Fig. 2). This innovation in freshwater aquaculture, together with the excellent CAPEX to OPEX ratio of our RAS systems, is what modern fish farms should look for.
Future developments
In 2021, we will be fully operational at our new assembly and customer support facility in Dallas, Texas serving the U.S. and Canadian modern fish farming. We support sustainable landbased aquaculture production and we are ready to cooperate with industry experts and exceed their expectations.
More information: Çağdaş Güven Işık
Director of Technical Services MAT Filtration Technologies, Norway E: info@mat-ras.com
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